University of Utah student arrested in alleged threat to detonate school's nuclear reactor

9/22/2022

University of Utah student arrested in alleged threat to detonate school’s nuclear reactor if football team lost, officials say

The 21-year-old student’s statement made on a social media application was meant as a joke, she told investigators. But the university has a zero-tolerance policy for similar threats, authorities said.

“On Saturday, Sept. 17, the University of Utah Police Department was notified someone had posted a message on YikYak: ‘If we don’t win today, I’m detonating the nuclear reactor on campus,’” the statement said.

University police determined a student did post the message, and she was interviewed Wednesday, officials said.

“She acknowledged posting the statement and was arrested and taken to the Salt Lake County Jail and booked for making terroristic threats,” officials said.

The student claimed her statement was meant as a joke, the university said; however, Police Chief Jason Hinojosa said in the statement, “We have a zero-tolerance policy for these kind of threats.”

The university’s nuclear reactor, Hinojosa said, is secured and it has alarms, and police have unique protocols for managing any breach.

A university spokesperson told NBC News on Thursday that the university has a nuclear engineering program, which is why there is a reactor on campus. According to the Energy Department, the University of Utah is one about 25 universities with nuclear reactors.

At a news conference Thursday afternoon, Hinojosa said police had no choice but to arrest the student, even if she was joking.

“Under state law, it doesn’t matter. Even if they’re completely incapable of carrying out the threat or the threat is made but an attempt is not, it’s still the same charge.”

A representative of the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office said the student was no longer in jail after having posted bail. The representative was unsure how much the bail was.

In August, another student at the university called in a bomb threat for the David Eccles School of Business during the first week of classes, officials said.